Monthly Archives: March 2000

25th March 2000- Premier League, Watford 0 Tottenham Hotspur 0

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4393

BSAD report: There are less than ten minutes left. Robbo’s receiving a pass and steaming down the left like an irate, stampeding wildebeest. He whacks a cross towards the penalty area, hitting a defender and winning a corner. His momentum takes him over the touchline and towards the Rookery, fists clenched and bellowing insanely to demand more support. Spurs are visibly rattled by our bruising assault, suddenly defending a draw rather than pursuing a victory.

In the stand that Robbo’s glaring at, we’re all on our feet. My vocal chords are taking more abuse, screaming encouragement. I’m bracing myself for the winner.

Take a freeze-frame of that moment. Think about it. We’re supposed to have accepted relegation, to feel humbled by the Premiership experience. Yet it takes only the slightest encouragement to flip the script entirely, to bring us back to life as this roaring, snarling beast of a team.

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18th March 2000- Premier League, Watford 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0

A late goal from Allan Smart gave Watford the points in this battle between the Premiership’s worst two sides.

Sunday Telegraph, 19 Mar 2000

Observer, 19 Mar 2000

Independent, 19 Mar 2000

Daily Telegraph, 19 Mar 2000

It only takes a second to score a goal. It only takes a goal to win a game. It only takes a win to make my day….And it would only have taken a few more days like this to make a season.

It’s tempting to write only about the last ninety seconds of this game. Watford played beautifully, Smart scored early thanks to a splendid assist from star forward Tommy Smith, then we defended stoutly and resolutely for the arduous and seemingly endless remainder of the game, displaying the excellent teamwork that has often been lacking, etc., etc.

https://oldwatford.com/2015/05/02/2nd-may-2015-championship-watford-1-sheffield-wednesday-1/

11th March 2000- Premier League, Newcastle United 1 Watford 0

https://www.watfordfcarchive.co.uk/fixture/2000-03-11

Independent, 12 Mar 2000

Sunday Telegraph, 12 Mar 2000

BSAD: For an hour, we were once again persuasive in putting our case forward. Playing with anything like full intensity – discounting that diabolical first half against West Ham, in other words – we look a very decent outfit. Probably because we are a very decent outfit, and one that’s held itself together remarkably well in the circumstances.

BSAD: We thought we had escaped, but our relief lasted barely sixty seconds when Shearer held up play superbly before releasing Domi who sprinted to the by-line, squaring for an unmarked Gallagher to ram the ball home. Our confidence shattered, we played the next fifteen minutes like a team aware of their fate. We were clueless. If it were not for Chamberlain we could have been stuffed. He produced two unbelievable saves to deny first Speed and then, from the resulting corner, Dabizas. We had lost the plot and it was not a pretty sight.

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2000-03-11

https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/11-march-2000/

4th March 2000- Premier League, Watford 1 West Ham United 2

For once, Watford fans had more than blind faith to cling to as kickoff approached. Not only the encouragement of two vastly improved performances, especially that mighty effort at Chelsea, but also the knowledge that we’d be able to field an unchanged side. This was it, this was our first win of the new year. No doubts.

Playing crap I can tolerate – it happens, whatever the division you are in. But showing such an APPARENT LACK OF EFFORT? The “half-arsed” element to our play in that first half still rankles, 48 hours on.

I saw us lose 4-0 at Spurs this season but there we were undone by the magician Ginola. In the first half against West Ham we showed a complete lack of the application and spirit that GT instilled over twenty years ago, and that simply cannot be tolerated.